Bhubaneswar, Aug 2 (IANS): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha crime branch has arrested another fraudster for his involvement in misappropriating government subsidies of Rs 7.16 crore meant for supply of agricultural equipment to farmers, an EOW official said Friday.
The accused identified as Prahallad Meshua, proprietor of Subhalaxmi Traders, Bargarh was arrested on Wednesday. Earlier, five persons including the prime accused Srinath Rana were arrested in this case by the EOW.
This case was registered based on the complaint filed by K.G. Sree Charan, director of Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt Ltd, Bangalore.
Prime accused in the case, Srinath Rana, who earlier worked as regional manager in the said company, was authorised to register the sale of machineries in Odisha and to facilitate subsidies to the beneficiaries/farmers by accessing the state Agriculture department website.
During the period from 2017-21, accused Srinath Rana with criminal conspiracy with the present accused Prahallad Meshua and several other dealers had fraudulently uploaded the details of more than 556 paddy transplanters and equal number of beneficiaries covering 18 districts of Odisha. The accused have done it without the knowledge of the complainant farm, the officials said.
By submitting fake documents, the accused managed to get release of subsidy amount to the tune of about Rs 7.16 crore in favour of the beneficiaries.
Soon after the credit of subsidy amounts in accounts of beneficiary farmers, the accused persons in a criminal conspiracy with others used to lure the beneficiaries by giving them some token amount and were grabbing the subsidy amount, they said.
The cost of the trans-planter ranges from Rs 2.33 lakh to Rs 3 lakh and the government released subsidy amounts ranging from Rs 93,320 to Rs 1.50 lakh.
Out of 556 paddy transplanters, 54 trans-planters are shown to have been supplied by Prahallad Meshua, proprietor of Subhalaxmi Traders, who was also the authorised dealer of Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt Ltd. The EOW is further investigating the case to find out other persons involved in the fraud.